If you are an alcoholic who consciously wants to stop drinking but can’t; a heavy drinker who never gives any thought to whether or not you are drinking too much, or a social drinker who believes that drinking is important, compelling you to continue with the addiction – these 8 reasons will convince you to …

If you are an alcoholic who consciously wants to stop drinking but can’t; a heavy drinker who never gives any thought to whether or not you are drinking too much, or a social drinker who believes that drinking is important, compelling you to continue with the addiction – these 8 reasons will convince you to quit drinking the poison right away, come what may.

Alcohol Causes Cancer

American Cancer Society says the amount of alcohol consumed over time, not the type of alcoholic beverage, is the most important factor in raising cancer risk. Alcohol is a known cause of cancers of the Mouth, Throat (pharynx), Voice box (larynx), Esophagus, Liver, Colon and Rectum, Breast, and Pancreas. For each of these cancers, the risk increases with the amount of alcohol consumed.

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, alcoholism can lead to malnutrition [because alcohol suppresses the appetite], which leads to inadequate intake and absorption of food and nutrients. For this reason, even heavy drinkers who consume high levels of nutrient-rich food, fail to get the full benefit of those nutrients.

Alcohol Affects B-12 Absorption

Drinking alcohol, even in moderation, can have profound effects on the way your body absorbs vitamin B-12, the deficiency of which leads to heart attack and stroke, megaloblastic anemia, fatigue, shortness of breath, tingling and numbness in the extremities, headache, dementia, disorientation, loss of concentration and memory, and even death.

Alcohol Destroys Liver – Forever

Between 10 and 20% of heavy drinkers develop liver cirrhosis – severe scarring and disruption of the normal structure of the liver not reversible with abstinence. Alcohol abuse is one of the three most common causes of cirrhosis of the liver in the US; according to the National Institutes of Health, liver cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of death by disease.

Alcohol Is A Depressant

Some people use alcohol to calm their nerves, to soothe their anxiety and to relieve stress. But alcohol is not a medication. Alcohol is a depressant, which actually worsens anxiety by changing the levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain; that’s why some people feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off.

Alcohol can damage the inner lining of the stomach, the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder; alter the structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract; and lead to abdominal discomfort, stomachaches, heartburn, and acid reflux.

Alcohol Affects Sleep Quality

While many drinkers would argue that alcohol helps them fall asleep a little faster, researchers at the University of Melbourne have found that alcohol just before sleep can lead to poorer quality slumber. You’re more likely to wake up during the night, and may not feel as rested following your sleep.

“People tend to feel that alcohol helps them fall asleep a little quicker, and therefore people associated that with helping them sleep. But when you actually go and look at what is happening while they sleep, the quality of that sleep isn’t good.”

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, moderate drinking is up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men. But with alcohol, the line between “moderate use” and “dangerous use” can be a thin one.

Summary: A new study reports people living in areas with more sun light have lower rates of OCD.

Source: Binghamton University.

Living at higher latitudes, where there is also less sunlight, could result in a higher prevalence rate of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

“The results of this project are exciting because they provide additional evidence for a new way of thinking about OCD,” said Meredith Coles, professor of psychology at Binghamton University. “Specifically, they show that living in areas with more sunlight is related to lower rates of OCD.”

To compile their data, Coles and her research team read through many papers that addressed OCD prevalence rates in certain places and then recorded the latitudes of each location.

Individuals with OCD commonly report not being able to fall asleep until later than desired. Often times, they will then sleep in very late in order to compensate for that lost sleep, thus adopting a delayed sleep-wake pattern that may have adverse effects on their symptoms.

Individuals with OCD commonly report not being able to fall asleep until later than desired. Often times, they will then sleep in very late in order to compensate for that lost sleep, thus adopting a delayed sleep-wake pattern that may have adverse effects on their symptoms. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

“This delayed sleep-wake pattern may reduce exposure to morning light, thereby potentially contributing to a misalignment between our internal biology and the external light-dark cycle,” said Coles. “People who live in areas with less sunlight may have less opportunities to synchronize their circadian clock, leading to increased OCD symptoms.”

This misalignment is more prevalent at higher latitudes – areas where there is reduced exposure to sunlight – which places people living in these locations at an increased risk for the development and worsening of OCD symptoms. These areas subsequently exhibit higher lifetime prevalence rates of the disorder than areas at lower latitudes.

While it is too soon to implement any specific treatment plans based on this new information, future studies are in the works to test a variety of treatment methods that address sleep and circadian rhythm disruptions.

“First, we are looking at relations between sleep timing and OCD symptoms repeatedly over time in order to begin to think about causal relationships,” said Coles. “Second, we are measuring circadian rhythms directly by measuring levels of melatonin and having people wear watches that track their activity and rest periods. Finally, we are conducting research to better understand how sleep timing and OCD are related.”

Additionally, the team of researchers hopes that further study exploring exposure to morning light could help develop new treatment recommendations that would benefit individuals with OCD.

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“I want to tell you about Omar, a 5-year-old Syrian refugee boy who arrived to the shore on Lesbos on a crowded rubber boat. Crying, frightened, unable to understand what’s happening to him, he was right on the verge of developing a new trauma. I knew right away that this was a golden hour, a short period of time in which I could change his story, the story that he would tell himself for the rest of his life.

Omar looked at me with scared, tearful eyes and said, “What is this?” as he pointed out to the police helicopter hovering above us. I said: “It’s a helicopter! It’s here to photograph you with big cameras, because only the great and the powerful heroes, like you, Omar, can cross the sea.”

Omar looked at me, stopped crying and asked me, “I’m a hero?”

Now, to Omar, the smell of the sea will not just remind him of his traumatic journey from Syria. Because to Omar, this story is now a story of bravery.”

The global refugee crisis is a mental health catastrophe, leaving millions in need of psychological support to overcome the traumas of dislocation and conflict. To undo the damage, child psychiatrist and TED Fellow Essam Daod has been working in camps, rescue boats and the shorelines of Greece and the Mediterranean Sea to help refugees (a quarter of which are children) reframe their experiences through short, powerful psychological interventions. “We can all do something to prevent this mental health catastrophe,” Daod says. “We need to acknowledge that first aid is not just needed for the body, but it has also to include the mind, the soul.”

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

“It will be remembered that Hitler attained power by democratic means.”

It’s frightening. Unprincipled psychologists, in the service of a malignant regime, use sophisticated techniques in order to control the mind of a person from afar.

The term “brainwashing” was born in 1950. It is a Chinese word (xinao, literally wash brain). Originally, it served to describe a technique used – so it was claimed – by Chinese masterminds to manipulate the minds of American prisoners in the Korean War. They changed their unconscious mental processes and turned them into agents of sinister forces.

Many books and movies purported to show how this works. For example, the classic film, The Manchurian Candidate, shows how the communists take an American prisoner-of-war in the Korean war, an officer, manipulate his mind and give him an order to kill the US presidential candidate. The American officer does not know that he has been turned unconsciously into a communist agent. He does not remember the order given to him under hypnosis and does not know that he acts accordingly.

This plot is ridiculous, like most of the pseudo-scientific descriptions. In practice, it is much easier to manipulate the minds of people, individuals and collectives.

For example, the Nazi propaganda. It was invented by Adolf Hitler himself. In his book, Mein Kampf, he describes how, as a soldier on the Western front in World War II, he witnessed the extremely successful British propaganda. The British dropped leaflets over the German trenches and shattered the soldiers’ confidence in their leadership.

When Hitler came to power in Germany, he entrusted one of his faithful henchmen, Joseph Goebbels, with the creation of a Ministry of Propaganda. Goebbels turned propaganda into an art form. Among other means, he turned all the German media – newspapers and the radio – into government agencies. In German that was called Gleichschaltung – connecting all components to one electric line. Thanks to this, Nazi Germany continued fighting long after it was clear that it had lost World War II.

One of the means was the disconnection of the German public from any other source of information. The official propaganda was blared from every medium. Listening to a foreign broadcast was a major crime, punished severely.

Thus, it happened that the Germans still believed in their final victory – the Endsieg – even after the Soviets in the East and the Anglo-Saxons in the West had already crossed the borders into Germany.

Does it take a dictatorial regime – Nazi or Communist – to turn the media into a brainwashing machine? Common sense says that this is impossible in a democracy. Common sense is wrong.

A brainwashing machine

It will be remembered that Hitler attained power by democratic means. Even now, fanatical nationalists are winning democratic elections in many countries. All their leaders are busy destroying the courts, stuffing the parliaments with useful idiots and – especially – turning the media into brainwashing instruments. In our country [Israel], too.

How is this done? It’s quite simple, really: one has to suppress all other voices. One has to make sure that the citizen hears only one voice. One that repeats a few messages over and over, endlessly. This way the lie becomes truth.

In such a situation, the ordinary citizen becomes convinced that the official line is really their own personal opinion. This is an unconscious process. When one tells a citizen that they are brainwashed, they are deeply insulted.

The events on the Gaza Strip border have activated a mechanism of brainwashing that dictatorial regimes in the world can only envy.

This has been happening in Israel over the last few years. The citizen is not conscious that it is happening. He or she absorbs diverse newspapers, TV programmes and radio broadcasts, and sees that all these media are freely arguing with each other and even quarreling with each other. The citizen is not conscious of the fact that on the one critical subject of our life – war and peace – all the media are “connected” to one singular line of brainwashing.

During the last few weeks we have been seeing a perfect example of this mechanism. The events on the Gaza Strip border have activated a mechanism of brainwashing that dictatorial regimes in the world can only envy.

Let’s examine ourselves: what have we heard over the radio? What have we seen on TV? What did we read in the papers?

Within a few weeks more than a hundred human beings were shot dead, and many thousands were wounded by live fire. Why?

“We were forced to fire at them because they were storming the border fence.” And indeed, did the Gazans themselves not proclaim their will to “return home” – meaning, to return to Israeli territory?

But on 14 May, “Black Monday”, 63 unarmed demonstrators were shot dead and over 1,500 wounded by live fire. Every Israeli knows that this was necessary because the demonstrators stormed the fence and were about to swarm into Israel. Nobody paid attention to the simple fact that there was not a single photo showing such an occurrence. Not even one. In spite of the fact that on both sides of the fence there were hundreds of photographers, including Israeli army photographers, who filmed every single detail. Tens of thousands stormed, and not a single picture?

The “terror” propaganda tool

One should notice the use of the word “terror”. It has turned into an adjective attached to everything. There are not just tunnels – they are all always “terror-tunnels”. There are “terror-activists”. There is “the Hamas terror-regime” and there are “terror-bases”. Now there are “terror-kites”.

“All your problems are on the inside, in your heart. The problems aren’t from the outside, from other people, so you need to study who you are. Who’s 100 percent you? If you understand your inside, then you’re not afraid anymore.” ~Jet Li

For far too many people, life is a daily struggle. Working a job they don’t like, overloaded with bills, stuck in sour relationships, managing health issues, the fear of living in a messed up world, and so on. We’re never really taught to study life and how to find happiness, but when we do, the struggle fades and life is recognized as a gift and lived accordingly. This is the path to self-mastery; learning to live in a way that honors your personal power and cultivates happiness, inner peace and graceful strength.

Self mastery should be our primary internal goal in life, for as Leonardo DaVinci is quoted as saying, “one can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”

For nearly his entire life, martial artist and actor Jet Li has trained in wushu kung fu, and as practicing Buddhist he is also known for his devout daily meditation practice. Cultivation of his talents in these arts has led him to inspire many martial artists and ordinary people around the world.

Speaking from personal experience as a martial artist, the path of kung fu leads to respect for the self and for others, abundant health, confidence, spiritual clarity, and ultimately toward self mastery. These are the treasures of dedication to practice.

I recently came across a comment of Li’s regarding what he refers to as the three levels of martial arts, outlining the process of personal growth as it relates to combative sports, yet the wisdom contained herein is easily applicable to life in general, for it speaks to our innate need to first seek the power we need to survive, then to advance even further in the quest to thrive.

Speaking with Men’s Health magazine in 2010, Li’s notes:

Level one: Learn the forms-and repeat them endlessly. “Use your body as a weapon,” Li says. “And you need to use the weapons very well, [so you] concentrate on skill.”

Level two: Physical technique is now innate, so psychological tools come to bear. “I don’t need to fight if I can scare you, or use my heart to convince you,” says Li.

Level three: You gain a mastery of inner peace, so that you no longer need to raise a hand. “We sit here, everybody feels safe, and I’m not scared of aggression. It’s close to religion, like Jesus. They beat me up, fine. But slowly they understand, and they drop their weapons. They don’t want to fight anymore.” ~Jet Li

The first level refers to the development of physical capabilities, which represent the fundamentals of defending and protecting oneself. When this level is reached, we become untouchable in a physical sense, yet we still feel the psychological burden of being fearful in a hostile world. We’re still influenced by fear, and we expect that the world will demand that we enter into confrontation and struggle.

The second level is that of overcoming the psychological conditions which lead us to react from fear. When we achieve this level, we no longer feel compelled to react violently to this violent world, but instead are free to choose love over fear, drastically altering our relationship to others and the world at large. At this level, we are more powerful than most, and can avoid confrontation simply by remaining calm with the confidence of knowing just how strong and powerful we really are.

The third level refers to the inner peace and calm that comes with the realization that we are eternal beings and that whatever happens to us in the physical realm is of little consequence to the survival of our infinite, spiritual nature. At this level, there is no fear, and with this fearlessness we are able to bend the world to our will, influencing people and circumstances in a way that creates harmony and balance in relationships, and favorable outcomes.

As Bruce Lee calls it, this is the art of fighting without fighting, the ultimate achievement for the martial artist and the seeker of self-mastery.

About the Author

Dylan Charles is the editor of Waking Times and co-host of Redesigning Reality, both dedicated to ideas of personal transformation, societal awakening, and planetary renewal. His personal journey is deeply inspired by shamanic plant medicines and the arts of Kung Fu, Qi Gong and Yoga. After seven years of living in Costa Rica, he now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and enjoys spending time with family. He has written hundreds of articles, reaching and inspiring millions of people around the world.

Scientists have discovered that procrastination could be threatening your overall health. If you put things off frequently and for the wrong reasons, you could be at risk for debilitating health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

According to Entrepreneur, some of the negative consequences of procrastination are known by firsthand experience; we wait too long to start a project, or delay that important phone call, then end up feeling more pressure than we would have had we started things sooner. But that stress on the body while in rushed mode can actually cause health issues.

In our youth, most of us are taught to avoid procrastination because the practice leaves us with less time and more pressure, and those issues certainly aren’t good. But, later in life, the consequences of procrastination might go even further than we realize. Research by Fuschia Sirois, from Bishop’s University in Quebec, suggests that trait procrastination (the tendency to regularly delay important tasks) is correlated with both hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The correlation exists even when researchers control for variables like age, race, education level, and personality factors.

This means it isn’t the procrastination that actually adversely affects your overall health and well-being, it’s your body’s response to the added stress of rushing to finish a job in a short amount of time. Sirois’s study also noted the tendency for participants to demonstrate behavioral disengagement; in other words, they procrastinate as a way to distance themselves from a given problem. It’s a coping strategy, and not a healthy one, so chronic procrastinators aren’t able to manage their stress effectively.

Procrastinators also tend to feel bad after procrastinating, understanding that this is a bad habit and knowing they’ve put themselves in a difficult situation. But that self-blame can make them even more stressed. Stress is known to be hard on the body.

Even though procrastination’s additional stress-related health consequences are impossible to ignore, it’s not fair to cast all instances in a negative light. For example, one study from the Journal of Social Psychology noted two distinct types of procrastinators: active and passive. How much your body reacts to the stress will depend on which type of procrastination you most often display.

Passiveprocrastinators delay tasks until absolutely necessary because they find themselves unable to summon the discipline to do them sooner. Activeprocrastinators intentionally decide to delay their work as a time-management strategy. While active procrastinators spend the same amount of time putting things off, they display a more productive use of time and more adaptive coping skills, since they are only doing it to manage their available time. Passive procrastinators often simply don’t want to do the task at hand making the stress compound once they actually begin. Therefore, passive procrastinators often suffer the negative health effects to a greater capacity, says the research.

Understanding the consequences of procrastination, and fighting back against the habits that make you more susceptible to it will keep you productive and in better overall health. If you find yourself a habitual procrastinator and a passive one at that, take steps to help yourself overcome this habit. It could help lower your stress and leave you feeling healthier and more vibrant.

“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”

— Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Manipulating Our Core Concerns

While millions of Americans grasp for lifelines amid the unforgiving currents of extreme inequality, multi-millionaires and billionaires comfortably ride the waves and add to their enormous wealth and power. The contrast is jarring to be sure, but it persists nonetheless because self-interested representatives of the 1% have become masters at using manipulative psychological appeals — I call them “mind games” — to defuse and misdirect our outrage. And when they succeed, we regrettably lose our bearings about what’s happening, what’s right, what’s possible, and what we must do.

Exploring this phenomenon as a psychologist, my research has led me to a focus on five concerns that are particularly influential in our daily lives: namely, issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority and helplessness. Each is associated with a basic question we routinely ask ourselves: Are we safe? Are we treated fairly? Who should we trust? Are we good enough? Can we control what happens to us?

For multiple reasons, these concerns are especially important in this context. First, singly and in combination, they’re essential lenses through which we personally interpret events, evaluate our circumstances, and decide what actions, if any, to take. Second, these five concerns extend from individuals to groups; as a result, they’re relevant in a very wide range of settings: our interpersonal relationships, family relationships, work relationships, community relationships, and political relationships in local, national, and international spheres. Third, these same concerns have the potential to undermine our capacity for careful and critical thinking because they’re frequently linked to hard-to-control emotions, including fear, anger, suspicion, contempt, and despair.

Given their power and pervasiveness, then, it’s really not surprising that our concerns about vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority and helplessness are prized targets for manipulation. That’s why they figure so prominently in the propaganda campaigns of one-percenters who aim to discourage resistance to their narrow, self-aggrandizing agenda. Consider several examples. The 1% feed our vulnerability fears by pushing alarmist accounts of perils in our midst (the “It’s a Dangerous World” mind game). They twist our sense of injustice by insisting that they’re the ones who are actually being mistreated (“We’re the Victims”). They promote distrust and disorganization within the ranks of their opponents by pitting potential allies against each other (“They’re Different from Us”). They exploit notions of superiority by portraying the United States as a land of limitless opportunity where the cream always rises to the top (“They’re Losers”). And they encourage feelings of helplessness by arguing that today’s stark inequalities are the result of powerful forces beyond anyone’s control (“Change Is Impossible”).

The rich and powerful sometimes use these and related mind games to perpetuate an illegitimate status quo — for example, opposing universal healthcare (“Change Is Dangerous”), denying climate change (“It’s a False Alarm”), blocking sensible gun reform (“We’ll All Be Helpless”), and cracking down on dissent (“They’re Un-American”). At other times, they use similar appeals to expand their empire — for instance, by privatizing public education (“We’re Fighting Injustice”), by weakening labor unions (“They’re Devious and Dishonest”), by slashing corporate taxes (“We’ve Earned It”), and by pursuing deadly wars of aggression (“Pursuing a Higher Purpose”). Either way, when the 1% succeed in these efforts, few among us are spared the adverse consequences — especially those Americans already struggling to make ends meet or have their voices heard.

The Psychology of Persuasion

To better understand why the 1%’s mind games work so often, it helps to consider the science of persuasion. Whenever we try to influence someone’s attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, we’re engaging in persuasion. A parent may cajole a young child into eating vegetables. A teacher may exhort a student to buckle down. A friend may push for seeing one movie over another. A co-worker may encourage a colleague to try a different approach to complete a difficult assignment. Years of research — by psychologists such as Elliot Aronson, Robert Cialdini, and Anthony Pratkanis, among others — have gone a long way toward illuminating key elements of effective persuasion.

Of particular note, persuasion typically follows either of two different paths. One route engages us in a careful, rational evaluation of the arguments presented. As listeners or readers, we review the evidence, assess which claims seem to make sense and which do not, and then draw our conclusions accordingly. With this route, we try to distinguish between strong arguments and weak arguments. It’s an approach that has a lot to offer in getting it right. But it requires time, effort, and discernment — three elements that can be in short supply, especially when we’re in a hurry, or we’re not very interested in the topic, or we lack important background knowledge and skills.

That’s where the second persuasion route comes into play. With this path, our judgments are instead based on considerations quite different from the merits of the arguments themselves. The critical factor here becomes the extent to which the message we hear or read elicits strong emotions, perhaps making us fearful, or angry, or optimistic. This emotional arousal can lead us to ignore the actual quality of the evidence that’s being presented to us. For instance, if we’re scared enough we may lose the capacity to think and see clearly — which is just what those offering weak arguments are hoping for.

In much the same way, certain characteristics of a speaker or writer can heighten their credibility regardless of the claims being made. For example, we’re more likely to believe someone who’s presented as an expert — even if, unknown to us, this person has been paid to espouse a particular point of view. We’re also more readily persuaded by an authority figure — a parent, teacher, boss, or leader of some sort — even if they have no expertise about the issue at hand. And we’re inclined to accept the arguments offered by those we deem trustworthy and likeable because we tend to see such people as offering honest, objective appraisals unbiased by hidden motives — even when they’re not.

In sum, there are a variety of reasons — both good and bad, both conscious and unconscious — why we might be persuaded by an appeal. In some situations, we’re given the opportunity to consider carefully formulated arguments that are logical and based on solid evidence. At least as often, however, we find ourselves presented with arguments that have little to do with establishing the truth, despite any appearance to the contrary. The latter is the predatory realm of the 1%’s mind games: they’re designed to take full advantage of our fallibility when it comes to figuring out who and what to believe.

Resistance through Attitude Inoculation

How can we thwart the 1%’s agenda? It begins by personally resisting the sway of their mind games. As Noam Chomsky wrote almost four decades ago, “Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful democracy.” Such preventative strategies have never been more crucial than they are today. Of course, implementing them isn’t easy because tapping into our core concerns can give the 1%’s appeals the solid ring of truth — even though they’re as flimsy as a con artist’s promises.

The good news is that research on the psychology of persuasion shows how we can hold firm against the propaganda of the self-interested rich and powerful. Of particular relevance is what’s called “attitude inoculation.” The basic idea comes from the familiar public health approach used to prevent contracting and spreading a dangerous virus. Consider the flu vaccine. When you get a flu shot, you’re receiving a modest dose of the actual influenza virus. Your body responds by building up antibodies, which will prove essential in fighting off the full-blown virus if it later attacks as you go about your daily life. A flu shot doesn’t always work, but it improves your odds. That’s why we’re encouraged to get one each year before the flu season begins.

The 1%’s mind games are like a virus that can “infect” us with false and destructive beliefs. Here too, it turns out that inoculation is the best defense. Having been warned that this “virus” is prevalent and heading our way, in the form of deceptive appeals targeting our core concerns, we can become more vigilant and prepare in advance for the onslaught. The recommended preparation involves learning to recognize the mind games and practicing the counterarguments — the “antibodies” — that we’ll need when we’re later faced with an all-out assault. As psychologists Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson have explained, “We cannot resist propaganda by burying our heads in the sand. The person who is easiest to persuade is the person whose beliefs are based on slogans that have never been seriously challenged and examined.”

The Progressive Alternative

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with appeals that focus on issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, or helplessness. Indeed, since these are our core concerns, they should be front and center when it comes to matters of public policy and the general welfare. But if we adopt a progressive perspective, political persuasion efforts that engage these issues should, with integrity, counter extreme inequality rather than preserve or extend it. These appeals should spur us to improve people’s lives, not turn our backs on those who are struggling. And they should help us understand how, together, we can make things better — for everyone.

The mind games of the 1% do exactly the opposite. They exploit our concerns for the specific purpose of advancing narrow interests while bringing harm to the vast majority of Americans. Rather than using their enormous resources to help create a more equal and decent society, the 1% instead devote themselves to protecting and expanding their wealth and power. Moreover, when arguing their case, they conceal their true intentions with carefully crafted appeals that manipulate our perceptions, promote falsehoods and distortions, and prey upon our emotions and prejudices.

That’s why meaningful progress depends upon debunking the seductive propaganda of today’s millionaire and billionaire snake-oil vendors. It’s a tall order. The 1% have created a daunting environment for collective action by those who oppose their aims. But we have key resources of our own, including a compelling vision for the country — one in which danger, mistreatment, and crushed aspirations will no longer be a routine part of so many lives.

The ideas presented here are explored in greater depth in Dr. Eidelson’s new book. POLITICAL MIND GAMES: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible is available through IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online outlets, and neighborhood bookstores.